Electrical powered artificial lighting has become ubiquitous in modern society. Common uses for electrical lighting devices include, for example, in homes, hospitals, buildings of commercial and other enterprise establishments, as well as in various outdoor settings. Traditional light fixtures or luminaires have tended to be relatively dumb, in that the light fixtures or luminaires power ON/OFF, and in some cases dim, usually in response to user activation of a relatively simple input device.
Since the advent of electronic light emitters, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), for general lighting type illumination application, lighting equipment has become increasingly intelligent with incorporation of sensors, programmed controllers and network communication capabilities. Automated control, particularly for enterprise installation, such as for retail or office space or hospitals, etc, may respond to a variety of sensed conditions, such as daylight or ambient light level and occupancy as well as to various types of user inputs. Similar types of controllers may be used to operate or control other types of equipment on the premises, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), other building management systems (BMS) services such as access and/or surveillance, or various appliances.
The controllers for existing systems have fixed interfaces to receive user input for lighting or other on-premises functions. There have been proposals and some products that offer touch or gesture inputs. The surfaces of the interfaces for controllers sense the user inputs; however, problems arise with erroneous sensed input at the controller when the user is unclear of a status or function of an input, or a mode of the system, especially in a control system with multiple zones, or when the user must rely upon tactile feedback of a mechanical switch or panel.